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Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Yankees, Twins meet in huge Killebrew series

The Minnesota Twins still lead the Harmon Killebrew Award standings after a big run of wins early this season. However, the New York Yankees are coming on strong and now have three Killebrews this year, the most of any team. Now that the Yankees have defended the Killebrew by winning the first two games of their series with the Twins this week, it remains to be seen if they will use this chance to overtake the Twins in the overall standings.

It's only mid-August, and we can't predict the future, but something tells us that this week's series between the Minnesota Twins and the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium will tell us a lot about how the Harmon Killebrew Award shakes out for 2015.

The Twins and Yankees entered this week as the top two clubs in the Killebrew standings, and that situation will be unchanged at the end of this week. The Twins have two titles and 22 games of title defense. But the Yankees are coming, They won the opener Monday night, 8-7 win 11 innings, then trounced the Twins, 8-4, Tuesday to clinch a title defense. Now, the Yankees are second to the Twins with 16 games of title defense, but they still have it and they can keep adding.

With this weeks wins, the Yankees are in position to pile up victories in the Killebrew and, perhaps, surpass the totals the Twins still have on their side. The Twins could have fortified their league-leading performance by taking the Killebrew from the Yankees and adding from there.

The Yankees are having their best year with the Killebrew Award, which is to say little for their past performances. Their three Killebrews this year match their all-time totals from 2011 through 2014. But they didn't even once defend the titles they won in 2013 and 2014, and they didn't even win one in 2012. And, in fact, they didn't defend the Killebrew they won this May 7-10 by taking three of four from the Baltimore Orioles at Yankee Stadium.

However, the Yankees won the Killebrew in a four-game split against the Texas Rangers July 27-30 (the Yankees won on total runs, 35-19, largely because of a 21-5 win on July 28), then defended it against the Chicago White Sox and the Boston Red Sox before losing it in a three-game sweep against the Toronto Blue Jays Aug. 7-9.

The Yankees regained the Killebrew by winning two of three against the Blue Jays last weekend, just in time for the Twins to visit Yankee Stadium. The Twins built their lead in the Killebrew standings early. They have played for it only once since they last lost it on June 10. By June 10, though, the Twins had two titles and one run of four title defenses, still the longest such streak of the season for the Killebrew.

The Twins were looking at this time last year like they might walk away with the Killebrew, despite their otherwise lackluster season. But the Cleveland Indians pried the award from the Twins September 19-21, then the Kansas City Royals immediately took it from the Indians before running four strong title defenses that took it all the way through the American League playoffs.

The Royals ended up the Team of the Year in the Killebrew with a 27-16 record, four titles, 27 games of title defense and a six-for-nine showing in title defenses. The Twins finished 21-22 with five titles and 22 games of title defense, succeeding in only two of seven title defenses.

W — Wins. L — Losses. P — Times played for title. T — Titles won. G — Number of games that team held title
after winning it. D — Title defenses. A — Title defense attempts. Standings are given in order of games holding the title.

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Bill Peterson is an award winning journalist who has covered sports around the country for more than 30 years, including Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League and major collegiate sports for daily newspapers and major wire services. His longest stint was with The Cincinnati Post from 1986-1998. He also has worked at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and the Miami Herald. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Sporting News and Baseball America, among other publications. He later produced successful public interest newspapers and websites in the Austin/San Antonio area. Peterson is a lifetime member of the Baseball Writers Association of America, formerly with a vote for the Hall of Fame. He can be contacted by email at bill@labigleagues.com.